A. P. Language & Composition

"You must read, Alice, before it's too late. You must fill your mind with the converted images of the past: the more the better. . . . These images, apart from anything else, will help you put the two and twos of life together, and the more images your mind retains, the more wonderful will be the star studded canopy of experience beneath which you, poor unfortunate primitive creature that you are, will shelter." Fay Weldon Letters to Alice on First Reading Jane Austen

As often as a study is cultivated by narrow minds, they will draw from it narrow conclusions." John Stuart Mill

"He who knows only his side of the case knows little of that." John Stuart Mill

The Nature of the Course

Stuff We Will Read

Stuff We Will Write

Sites to Check Out

Calendar of Events

Keep Quiet and do your work!

The Nature of the Course:

In this course you will learn how to analyze literature in its three primary forms, poetry, prose, and drama. You will then learn to express your thoughts and opinions on what you have read. Much of your professional lives will be spent responding to written or verbal forms of communication so it follows that the ability to read, understand, and communicate your understanding is a valuable skill to possess and develop, even if, God help you, you never read another line of great literature. It is our aim to teach you to express your thoughts, impressions, and opinions so that the average reader can understand them. You will be expected to write cogent essays that are well developed and defended that successfully persuade others of the validity of your thoughts. This does not mean you have to persuade others to think like you. It does mean that others, even if they do not come to share your view, understand the merits of your view. As you study literature the awareness should strike you that there are many "right" answers to the issues discussed. What is important is not that you reach some sanctioned conclusion, but that your conclusions are defensible. It is a further aim that you learn to understand and write about different points of view. To fully understand your own point of view you must know, and to a certain extent understand, opposing points of view.

This is the first goal of this class, and the second is like unto it: to develop critical thinking skills. The first step in this process is to understand our own thinking. "What do I think about this and why do I think it?" are questions we must constantly ask ourselves. It is a presumption of this class that writers write to, among other things, express ideas and communicate points of view. Hopefully the process of analyzing ideas and different points of view will expand, or even change, our thinking on the issues the various authors raise. To understand the ideas a work of literature expresses it is helpful to understand and appreciate the forms they use. For example, why did the author write a sonnet instead of an ode? It is also important to be able to assess a works artistic merit. It is important to remember that it is possible to recognize the artistry with which a poem or story is written without personally "liking" it. It is also important to recognize how authors use the various literary devices to tell their stories. As a result of pursuing these two sets of goals you should come to understand literature, its artistry and craft.

Stuff We Will Read:

August 30 - September 7 - Introduction to Literary Analysis, Native American Literature & The Narrative of Frederick Douglass

Must be at least five pages in length with at least two bibliographic citations.

Thesis statement, and bibliography due by September 17.

Outline due by September 25

First draft due for peer review October 12.

Final draft due October 15.

Rewrite due October 23.

Literary Analysis Paper

Must be at least five to six pages in length with at least one bibliographic citation.

Outline, thesis statement, and bibliography due November 19.

First draft due for peer review January 3.

Final draft due January 11.

Rewrite due January 17.

Internet Project

Part One due January 11.

Short Essay Analysis

Must be six to eight pages in length with citations from at least five different sources.

Paper is to include a works cited page that properly identifies the sources of the citations used in the paper and a bibliography that references all the outside reading done in researching your pa-per. The bibliography should be of significantly greater length than the works cited page and is to include at least fourteen items that were studied in the course of researching your paper.